Editor Log: May 2007

Last Month

I didn't write an April log because, frankly, I didn't have much to report. Scotty doesn't call the bridge to report that all's well. Except, maybe, for today.

Trusting the users

In my last Editor Log I talked about changes to address concerns about overly proactive action by the admin staff. In short, a return to "written and edited by the world". That was well-received and I think that the resultant policy adjustments have worked out very well. Even immediate stress-testing by Piracy Quest 2007 didn't cause e2 to unravel. I think we can call it a success. Thanks to everyone who rose to the challenge (and that continue to do so).

Anonymity and e2

Some noders see this web site as a sort of French Foreign Legion where they can assume a new identity and write without fear of being connected to their Real-World identities. Sometimes this fails, and a noder will be tumbled by their family/spouse/stalker/employer. Often when this happens, the noder asks that we remove their content and close out their account. This is all the more likely when the noder has a distinctive writing style or chooses to share unique personal details. Of course, those same circumstances often lead to very interesting nodes. We had a couple of these cases recently ... farewell and godspeed to the noders in question, who know who they are.

Admin changes

As you all know, our admins are volunteers. I thank all the current, past, and future admin team members for their time and their dedication to the site.

• Retired CEs: DejaMorgana stepped down from the Content Editors team.
• New CEs: Walter and Junkill joined the Content Editors team.
• New e2gods: borgo and Jack moved from Content Editors to the Too Many Buttons Squad.

Swan Song

This will be my last Editor log as Editor in Chief. Starting June 1st, Jack will be assuming the role. I am not leaving e2, though — I will still be around, likely helping with some of the longer-term site changes. I may be less visible day-to-day, but on the other hand, I hope to add content a bit more regularly!

I've largely enjoyed my time in the EiC role. I've been priviliged to be chief cat-herder for such a diverse and creative group of noders. Thanks for listening to me these last 20 months or so, and thanks to all who helped me and offered me words of encouragement. Please be kind to Jack as he takes over as Editor in Chief.

A change is as good as arrest

I was going to call this "a change is as good as a rest" when the homonym struck me. Figuring I wasn't alone, I Google'd and the first search hit elaborated thus: "Back to hooking then, I reckon. Nice thing about assless leather pants: they always fit." Words of wisdom worthy of closing.

Meet the New Boss, Same as the...oh, never mind.

Hey y'all.

As Brawl so nonchalantly stated above, I'm going to be taking the reins from his loving Canadian hands. He has his reasons for stepping down, and the shoes he's leaving to fill are, well, scarily large. Nevertheless.

I don't know what's going to change in the long run (though it'll be for the best, I'm sure) but I can tell you a little about my editorial philosophy, and what I think e2, fundamentally, is.

I grew up in New Jersey and I live in New York City. I work as an editor (a professional one) at a marketing research firm. I'm a night owl, previously out of preference but now mostly because my job revolves around the prime time television schedule. Because my job pretty much involves me cleaning up language on a computer, I'm online (and on e2) more than is probably healthy. I write a lot, most of which gets posted here, and I spend most of my time as an admin here talking to new users, cleaning out the cruft and just generally prettifying things.

My major focus with E2, at least the stuff I think about, usually involves ways of finding new contributors, keeping the ones we have and making the whole experience easier, both for the userbase at large and the staff - the more minutiae that we can get out of the way or automate, the more we can write, and the more we write the better we, as a whole, get at it.

I'm also big on E2 as a community - I've met over a hundred and twenty of you people in person (assuming my list is right; that figure's probably low) in nine states and two continents, and anything that can engender that particular feeling of camaraderie that springs up out of nowhere once we hit critical mass can't be a bad thing. If anything we need more of that, both here and in the real world.

The thing you should probably know about me more than anything else, particularly as my skillset relates to E2 is concerned, is this: I don't code - the last programming language I had any familiarity with was BASIC and a Perl ain't nothin' but a purdy thing to me. Luckily, we've got other amazing people to take care of that.

Once I get my feet under me and settle into the big chair I'll give y'all a more than a hypothetical take on things. As it stands, rest easy - I grew up on E2 in a very real way and I won't let anything bad happen to it. Promise.

Be kind to one another,

Jack